TCL ends partnership with Blackberry and from August 31, 2020 will no longer present any smartphone
Bad news for those who hoped for a rebirth of the mythical BlackBerry. The Canadian brand managed since 2016 by the Chinese company TCL, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics groups, was supposed to be at the center of a major revival thanks to the production of Android smartphones. Everything seemed ready for the big comeback, but things have gone differently.
With a statement released n these days, TCL has promptly announced that starting from August 31, 2020 all activities related to the production, design and sale of BlackBerry devices will be stopped permanently. Thus disappears the possibility to get your hands on a new BlackBerry smartphone, a phone, at the time, really innovative and the only one able to give a hard time to the newborn iPhone. Owners of a BlackBerry smartphone purchased in recent years, however, can rest assured: support is guaranteed for an additional two years, until August 31, 2022. They will receive system updates and security patches.
BlackBerry: end of an era
The great innovation introduced with the BlackBerry by the Canadian company RIM, Research In Motion, was the ability to manage email from a portable device. This feature, along with other features of the Canadian phone were the key to its success from 2008, but success was soon overshadowed by the iPhone. The BlackBerry, after a golden period, fell into oblivion, outclassed by the arrival of new smartphones and new brands more “modern” and performing.
BlackBerry: TCL throws in the towel
The partnership started in 2016 with the TCL group thus closes with nothing: from August 31, 2020, the Chinese company will no longer sell smartphones under the Blackberry brand. The Chinese company has confirmed that until 2022 it will continue to offer its support service to its customers even if it is not known how and when Android updates will be released for smartphones sold in recent years.
TCL hoped for a revival of the Canadian brand, hoping to win over some old nostalgic. The models launched in recent years also had unique and interesting features: large enough screen, Android operating system and the unmistakable keyboard. But it wasn’t enough to regain space on the market. The end of the partnership was in the air: in 2019 TCL did not present any new Blackberry-branded device, except for a new red color of the BlackBerry KEY2 presented at the last Mobile World Congress. Another piece of phone history goes away, waiting for some other company to borrow the Blackberry brand to launch new devices.